• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2748-2755
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• 2024

This paper presents two new methods for variance reduction for shielding calculation in Monte Carlo radiation transport. One method is CADIS-NEE, which combines Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) and next-event estimator (NEE) methods to increase the calculation efficiency of tallies at points. The other is CADIS-deterministic transport (DXTRAN), which combines CADIS and DXTRAN to obtain higher performance than using CADIS and DXTRAN separately. The combination processes are derived and implemented in the hybrid Monte-Carlo-Deterministic particle-transport code NECP-MCX. Various problems are tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the two methods. According to the results, the two combination methods have higher efficiency than using CADIS, NEE or DXTRAN separately. In a long-distance photon-transport problem, CADIS-NEE converges faster than NEE and the figure of merit (FOM) of CADIS-NEE is 75.6 times of NEE. In a labyrinthine problem, CADIS-DXTRAN's FOM surpasses that of DXTRAN and CADIS by a factor of 45.3 and 17.7, respectively. Therefore, it is advisable to employ these two novel methods selectively in appropriate scenarios to reduce variance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.1172-1180
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• 2017

The application of Monte Carlo (MC) to large-scale fixed-source problems has recently become possible with new hybrid methods that automate generation of parameters for variance reduction techniques. Two common variance reduction techniques, weight windows and source biasing, have been automated and popularized by the consistent adjoint-driven importance sampling (CADIS) method. This method uses the adjoint solution from an inexpensive deterministic calculation to define a consistent set of weight windows and source particles for a subsequent MC calculation. One of the motivations for source consistency is to avoid the splitting or rouletting of particles at birth, which requires computational resources. However, it is not always possible or desirable to implement such consistency, which results in inconsistent source biasing. This paper develops an original framework that mathematically expresses the coupling of the weight window and source biasing techniques, allowing the authors to explore the impact of inconsistent source sampling on the variance of MC results. A numerical experiment supports this new framework and suggests that certain classes of problems may be relatively insensitive to inconsistent source sampling schemes with moderate levels of splitting and rouletting.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.2018-2025
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• 2019

This study systematically compared two hybrid deterministic/Monte Carlo transport codes, ADVANTG/MCNP and MAVRIC, in solving a difficult shielding problem for a real-world spent fuel storage cask. Both hybrid codes were developed based on the consistent adjoint driven importance sampling (CADIS) methodology but with different implementations. The dose rate distributions on the cask surface were of primary interest and their predicted results were compared with each other and with a straightforward MCNP calculation as a baseline case. Forward-Weighted CADIS was applied for optimization toward uniform statistical uncertainties for all tallies on the cask surface. Both ADVANTG/MCNP and MAVRIC achieved substantial improvements in overall computational efficiencies, especially for gamma-ray transport. Compared with the continuous-energy ADVANTG/MCNP calculations, the coarse-group MAVRIC calculations underestimated the neutron dose rates on the cask's side surface by an approximate factor of two and slightly overestimated the dose rates on the cask's top and side surfaces for fuel gamma and hardware gamma sources because of the impact of multigroup approximation. The fine-group MAVRIC calculations improved to a certain extent and the addition of continuous-energy treatment to the Monte Carlo code in the latest MAVRIC sequence greatly reduced these discrepancies. For the two continuous-energy calculations of ADVANTG/MCNP and MAVRIC, a remaining difference of approximately 30% between the neutron dose rates on the cask's side surface resulted from inconsistent use of thermal scattering treatment of hydrogen in concrete.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2013

Integrated aircraft synthesis process for rapid analysis and design is described in this paper. Data flow between different analysis fields is described in details. All the data are divided into several groups according to importance and source of the data. Analysis of design requirements and certification regulations is carried out to determine baseline configuration of an aircraft. Overall design process can be divided into initial sizing, conceptual and preliminary design phases. Basic data for conceptual design are obtained from initial sizing, CAD and geometry analysis. Basic data are required input for weight, aerodynamics and propulsion analyses. Results of this analysis are used for stability and control, performance, mission, and load analysis. Feasibility of design is verified based on analysis results of each discipline. Design optimization that involves integrated process for aircraft analysis is performed to determine optimum configuration of an aircraft on a conceptual design stage. The process presented in this paper was verified to be used for light aircraft design.